It was a fantastic, full week of school in JU-A! As the week went on, temperatures went up. Many students even remarked that they felt hot at The Schuylkill Center on Thursday. Please be sure to send your children to school with refillable water bottles on Thursdays so they can stay hydrated when we are outside.

This week students finished their experiments with fast plants after working with them for much of the winter. This weekend, ask your children if they were surprised by the results: Did the variable they worked with produce more seeds than the control plant?

Students also continued working on their Chinese culture research presentations and their research writing about Dynastic China. This weekend, ask your children to share some interesting facts they have learned during the research process. Is there any part of the process they would change the next time they do research?

On Friday, Kindergarten’s Brian Jordan joined us for Encuentro. Brian’s band, City Love, led a dynamic and thought-provoking song workshop about identity that had all of us up on our feet singing, dancing, and thinking about our roles in this community. Ask your child how they felt about the workshop.

We have spent a few of our morning meetings this week discussing cures for “Spring Fever.” Many students have brought in fidget devices to help them focus. We discussed as a class how effective these can be as tools when used correctly, but also how distracting they can become when used incorrectly. If you’ve noticed fidgets at home, too, please continue that conversation.